"Wild Ames over the water

Headin' north and home again
Bringin' the warm wind from the south
Bringin' the first taste of the spring..."
~John Denver, Wild Montana Skies

Well, that's it. My flight leaves for LA in a couple of hours so I need to scare up some lunch and get myself to the shuttle bus in a few minutes. My camera has made it safely to Sydney and is on its way to Boston, where hopefully it will greet me next weekend, so check back after then for more photos! More detailed descriptions of the tours will be inserted as comments on the photos. I will also be stealing my fellow tourists' photos from Facebook and putting them up as they come, so NZ ones might be a bit later in posting.

The NZ tour was all right. It mostly consisted of being on a bus for eight hours a day on windy mountain roads, and not doing much of anything else. I'm not sure I would have been up for much more this week, what with this cold and all, so it seems to have worked out. After Queenstown we really didn't do much that's worth writing about, though the scenery was gorgeous.

I'm Alive!

Photos from hang gliding are on Picasa, click the link to the right and they're in the album called "Hang Gliding". Here's one to whet your appetite:

Tour 2, Day 2

New Zealand is AMAZING. Absolutely pristine and exquisite. It's not hard to see why they chose it as the location for shooting Lord of the Rings - it has an almost other-worldly beauty and looks untouched except for an unobtrusive 2-lane road that you're on. We've seen so many gorgeous things just from the bus, but also yesterday did an hour-long walk around Lake Matheson that was absolutely gorgeous, and this morning some of us did a 3-hour hike up to, around, and back down from a glacier. I had, as my mother likes to say, put on ALL of my clothes since most of what I have is geared more towards an Australian summer than a New Zealand autumn (winter - it is COLD here). At one point I was wearing a t-shirt, long sleeved shirt, hooded sweatshirt, fleece and windbreaker, with a baseball cap and the hood of the sweatshirt tied over it. My hands and face were still cold, but at least my calves and feet were cozy from the huge woolen socks and thick heavy hiking boots they made us wear! One of my fellow tourists was kind enough to take a photo of me inside an ice cave and has promised to send it to me, so that was nice.

The people who didn't go on the hike did the heli-hike, which was a short helicopter ride up to a little further up on the glacier, an hour of wandering about, and then a helicopter ride down. I liked the full hike, even though my feet and ankles had taken a beating by the time I got back down to the bus. It's a unique environment in which a glacier lives peacefully alongside a temperate rainforest (read: BEAUTIFUL walk up - we walked through streams from waterfalls and wooded hillsides on either side of the glacier). I was also surprised to see moving water on the glacier, through cracks. Gorgeous.

Tomorrow's main activity will be hang gliding for me (other options are bungee jumping and sky diving and horseback riding - we're in Queenstown, adrenaline capital of the world where many crazy activities were invented).

Notes from Sydney

I stepped off the plane in Sydney to a cool, dry, refreshing breeze - what a change from Darwin! Ok, let's back up. Dinner Tuesday night was indeed crocodile - it was prepared like chicken fingers and tasted a lot like chicken with a little fishy taste to it, and a little tougher, but good. I enjoyed the second half of the trip a lot, especially once the group shrank and gelled. We were one night in Katherine, where we took a river cruise through the Katherine gorges (saw a live crocodile!), and two nights in Kakadu National Park, where we took another cruise, a hike in the rain to see Aboriginal art, and generally took it easy. Some nights Nicky and I hung out with the girls, some nights we hosted poker night for the boys - it was nice to have a girl friend who would play with the boys with me! Also she is my age, where the other girls are younger and the boys are older.

Anyway, then we were in Darwin for a night, and used it as a base on Wednesday, the final day, for our day trip to Litchfield National Park, which was great. Our first stop was the termite mounds, which frankly gross me out so I'm not going to talk about them. Then we got to do the fun stuff, which was swimming and hiking in waterfalls! We took about an hour and all jumped in the pool. There was actually a really strong current so we had to aim for a rock and grip onto it carefully! But the water was cold and clear and felt great. Then we took a 1km hike around the upper part of the river that feeds the waterfall, then back to the bus. We also stopped at another waterfall but couldn't go in because the water levels were so high that crocodiles had been seen there, though we didn't see any. Then lunch, then back on the bus and to Darwin for the official end of the tour.

Luke and Michelle dropped of Jonas, Jens, Phil and me at the hotel we stayed at the night before and where Jonas, Phil and I were storing our bags until our flights out that night and Jens had booked another night. We puttered around a bit, fiddling with our hastily-packed luggage from the morning and gathering things for the afternoon/evening, then headed out to the internet cafes. I finally wandered back to the hotel around 6:30pm, where Jens let us each use his shower before our final group dinner, which was really nice. The girls begged off early and the rest of us killed time at the club until it was time to leave for the airport. Jonas, Phil and I ordered a cab (ah, small-town Darwin) and made tracks. Jonas' flight was right away but Phil and I were both flying through Brisbane about ten minutes apart, on our way to separate destinations, and we were able to keep each other awake until boarding shortly after 1am.

I arrived in Brisbane with precisely five minutes to kill (waiting in the restroom line) before my connecting flight. The good thing about these tiny airports is that it's very easy to have a connecting flight! The second gate was right after the first, and in Adelaide it was the very same gate and plane. Love it. I also got to watch the sunrise during the landing in Brisbane, which made up for being SO completely out of it after 3 hours' sleep! The flight to Sydney was more turbulent but I really couldn't manage to stay awake long enough to get worked up about most of it! I easily found my pal/hostess, the lovely Miss Adina of Miss Adina's Amateur Chauffeur Service, and we made tracks to her house where we laid out a plan for the day. We tackled some of my errands, with varying degrees of success, and took a ferry ride from Watson's Bay to Circular Quay. Now I am SO ready for bed! Fingers crossed that we'll see my camera tomorrow...! It was a lovely day of exploring and I am looking forward to being up for more tomorrow :)

Up the Track

Yes... with 7 hours of driving per day, you would think we'd see something exciting. Anything, really. What did we see? Lots of kangaroo roadkill. Coupla birds. Termite mounds (seriously - huge and gross). Yep... that's about it. Pretty boring. I did get to ride shotgun/guest DJ a couple of times, and got to talk to Luke, which was fun. It was interesting to watch the countryside change and the trees (and termite mounds) get bigger as we moved into an area with more water.

We stopped one night in the middle of nowhere called Banka Banka for some swag camping and some of the girls made a horror film on their digital camera that they called "The Banka Banka Bloodshed" starring Luke as the Banka Banka Butcher. I also managed to leave my camera behind in one place and it will be sent along to my friend that I'm staying with in Sydney. I'm looking forward to having it back! Needless to say... photos will be delayed... :(

Ok, that's all I have time for. Tonight's dinner is likely going to be crocodile - saw some on the various river cruises we took in the past couple of days! :) One more night in Darwin and then the tour is over and I make my way to Sydney!

Tour 1, Part 1

aka "There once was a tourist who swallowed a fly..."

The flies here are horrendous! They're not lazy like they are in the US - these buggers want water, and they want it NOW and they don't care if they get it from your sweat, your eyes, your ears, your nose, or your mouth. Most of us have pretty quick reflexes but our tour guide, Luke, definitely swallowed one while giving us a talk.

Moving on... We're back in Alice Springs for a couple of nights. The first four days of this tour are a loop between Alice Springs, Ayers Rock, Kings Canyon and back to "the Alice", so we actually had five of our fifteen desert us yesterday. I don't have too much time, so I'll just list off the highlights and do details (and photos, and videos) later: Ayers Rock at sunrise and sunset (and learning about its Aboriginal history), a 3.5 hour "walk" (did I mention Luke is crazy?) up to and then around the rim of Kings Canyon, a sunrise hot-air balloon ride (!!!!! my favorite!), Dinky the Singing (and piano-playing) Dingo, sleeping under the stars at Kings Canyon, playing with a python and his lizard friends (I got some good photos of me and the other kids wearing the python!), and cooling off in hotel pools in the afternoon.

I'm a little surprised we haven't seen any wildlife along the side of the road, or from the balloon. Tomorrow we start our killer trek "up the track" (aka the Stuart Highway). With seven hours of driving per day, we're sure to see something, right? Luckily we have been stopping every hour or two to do whatever touristy thing we come across (there's not too much out here but I'm sure we've done it ALL) so it won't be too horrible ;) We're camping out at Banka Banka tomorrow night and then back in civilization at Katherine.

Trivia: Congrats to Deb - the BBC addiction has paid off!
New Trivia: Famous Australians Burke and Wills can be compared to which two famous Americans?
a) Washington and Jefferson
b) Simon and Garfunkel
c) Franklin and Edison
d) Lewis and Clark
e) Ren and Stimpy

Quickie

Hey all, just a quick little post. The only downside to having free internet vouchers is finding a YHA hostel in the city to use them at! Went on a wild goose chase today so I'm resorting to my own hostel on the opposite side of the city, but hopefully will spend some quality time at the YHA tomorrow, uploading photos.

So what are these photos from, anyway? Sunday evening at this hostel in Melbourne, I met a crew of people who were heading for the Great Ocean Road by rental car the next day, and were gracious enough to give me a seat. It was a great trip and we had fun, despite a MASSIVE bout of what my family likes to call "curvy road disease". But all's well that ended well and I got some great photos of a place I had resigned myself to missing out on.

Tuesday one of those new friends and I hit the town: museums, Federation Square, and Botanical Gardens. It was a good day but I walked my feet off! Yesterday (Wednesday) I was on my own (Becca and Deb, I take it ALL back, I prefer being on my own!!! More on that later) and had a good healthy wander about town on my own. I first met up with the kids at the Melbourne office of the company I worked for in Brisbane, and we had lunch. Then I went to the Sofitel Hotel, whose 35th floor ladies' restroom has a pretty good view of the city (random, I know, but it was recommended by a coworker who used to live in Melbourne). I got a tad turned around in the gorgeous Fitzroy Gardens and finally made it back to the hostel.

Today I also headed off on my own and managed to hit St Kilda (was pretty much unimpressed but did have a lovely raspberry and mango sorbet in an attempt to escape the heat for a bit - it was in the upper 30s today - I think that's over 100F) and sadly that's all I can remember right now - internet time's about to be up! Photos soon~

"And on, and on, and onto the next one..."

We are about to embark on my least favorite part of traveling: repeating myself. It will get really old by my fourth hostel when I'll have reduced my life story and what brought me to Australia to a thirty second or less soundbite, but it's begun at work already. People stopped by reception all day to inform me that tomorrow is my last day and to enquire whether I was excited or sad or would miss them, and where I was going afterwards. I do realize that it's very sweet of them to be interested in my plans, and actually, repeating them helps them become more concrete and real to me, but I get bored listening to myself recount it all. When they ask if I'm excited, it's usually a chore to say yes like I mean it, but at the same time it helps me refocus on the exciting part of traveling, instead of the stressful bits I get stuck on when dealing with the details.

I am excited, but I'm also nervous. Melbourne doesn't have the same tourist checklist that Sydney does, so I talked to everyone I knew who had been to or lived in Melbourne to get ideas and now I finally feel like I know how I'll fill my time there. I consulted my friend Shana from college who studied abroad there, Coworker Erin and Bookclub Meg who both used to live there, new Sydney-based friends Esben and Adina who have both visited, our Melbourne office colleagues, the New York Times, and my Lonely Planet guidebook. I'll stop by the Melbourne office sometime during that week to say hi and finally put a picture to it in my head, even though I don't know them very well. It will be nice to feel like I have some friends in the city though!

Speaking of the office crew, it was lucky one of them sent around an email about Monday's holiday, because I was going to visit them then! As I explained before, each state decides what holidays it's going to celebrate and when (see "Australian cooking measurements," September 17, 2007 in the blog archive to the right). It turns out that Monday is Labour Day in the great southern state of Victoria, so many an office and, I can only assume, museums and other activities, will be closed.

Next week is a big week for Melbourne: the holiday on Monday and then that weekend they host the Formula 1 Grand Prix. I am a little turned off by it all, as I tried to explain to several Aussies, because of the bevin (car-loving white trash) stigma attached to car racing in the US. However, as it's a big deal to Melbourne, I will take a passing interest , maybe buy a souvenir, and then get the heck outta Dodge! (Ooooh... no pun intended!) It goes Thursday to Sunday and I skip town early Saturday morning. We shall see how it goes... stay tuned!

When you see the Southern Cross for the first time, you understand now why you came this way...

Trivia answer: The five stars form the Southern Cross.
Next trivia question: So we've got seven stars on the Australian flag: five are the Southern Cross, one is the Union Jack, and what does the last star represent? (Hint: It has 8 points.)

Last week was a busy one, with book group and then preparing for the camping trip. After much hemming and hawing about whether to leave Friday right after work or Saturday morning. We compromised (mostly because we had decided on Friday and couldn't get our act together - and by "we" I mean "Alex") and left at 8:00 Friday night. With a half-hour pit stop for beer, two-hour drive, half-hour dinner stop and one-hour time change, we got to Byron Bay around midnight in the pouring rain. Thinking this did not bode well for the rest of the weekend, we hemmed and hawed a bit more when we got there about whether to bother setting up the tent or just sleep in the car! Eventually the rain let up a tiny bit so we threw the tent up (5 minutes - must have been a record), crawled inside and passed out.

We had stopped at a gas station to ask directions, partly because we were relying on Alex's stellar memory from the last time he was at the campsite, and partly because we couldn't see a thing in the pouring rain. We asked the gas station attendant when it had started raining and he said, "About a month ago..."! We'd been hearing on the news that northern New South Wales had been pounded with rain recently, to the point of flooding, and yet this had not registered with any of us. Luckily it knocked that off the rest of the time we were there and was absolutely gorgeous the entire time after that. The campsite was about a one-minute walk from the beach, so any time we got too hot we just ran down and jumped in the surf. We also bought a tarp and rope and Alex and Dan rigged it up to stretch from the tree to the car so we had a nice big shady area to lie under in the heat of the day.

Speaking of the Southern Cross, the nights were so clear that we were able to do some star gazing, and I did see it. I couldn't see the fifth star, but I did learn how to find south from it (there are parallel lines and perpendicular lines and intersections... don't ask me to explain it!). We could also see Orion and Casseopia and Pegasus and had a bonfire on the beach and singalongs, and much fun was had by all.

In my opinion, Monday was the best day. We took our time packing up camp (we were supposed to be out by 10am... rolled out about noon) and headed into the town of Byron where we picked up a picnic of fish and chips. After we ate them in the park, we headed out to the lighthouse. Most of my photos (which will be up soon) are from the lighthouse - it's apparently the easternmost point of mainland Australia. You can even take this path down from the lighthouse all the way out to the furthest rocks that go into the water, which the boys did while I waited (more or less) patiently in the shade and listened to the Portuguese and Spanish on either side of me.

On the way down from the lighthouse, we stopped at a very calm beach where it was actually possible to swim and cavort and play around in the very calm waves. It was a perfect way to cool off mid-day before jumping in the car and battling the mildest post-holiday-weekend traffic I've ever seen. Made it home safe and sound around 6pm yesterday and just finished cleaning up the disaster area that was the kitchen :)

The Sound of Silence

Congratulations to Mindy (aka Manisha) for getting the answer right on the nose! There are 8 states, and since no one apparently wants to take a stab at naming them, here they are: Western Australia, Northern Territory, South Australia, Victoria, ACT (Capital Territory - very similar to Washington DC), New South Wales, Queensland, and Tasmania. (Ok so technically there are 6 states and 2 territories, oh well.)

New trivia question: Of the seven stars on the Australian flag (including the Union Jack), five form the shape of what? (I'll try to give you guys about a week to get up the nerve to post... remember, you don't need to register anymore in order to post a comment, and you also can't cheat by looking up the answer!)

Yesterday, Dan and I ventured out into the wild world beyond Brissy, aka the Northern Hinterland (they really do call it that!). We had stopped at a lookout place on our adventure to the beach a few weeks ago that was just across the road from a "scenic preserve" so we decided to go back up and check it out. It turned out to be a rainforest (called Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve) and it was beautiful. The walk was less than 2km but we ambled through and it took us about 2 and a half hours. There were lots of families and other assorted really loud people (including one girl on her cell phone, which was completely baffling), but when they were out of earshot it was wonderful and hardly quiet at all. Between the occasional rustling of pademelons (small reddish marsupials in the wallaby/kangaroo family) and the various birdcalls (one sounded like a crying baby!) were the soft sounds of falling leaves, the hum of insects, and the creaking and sighing of trees. I mostly took photos of the trees, since I'm not a good enough birdwatcher to spot them and the pademelons were too quick. The trees were spectacular, though, as you will see. Most of them had vines curling around them, one even to the point that the trunk was growing over around the vine! Some were really big around, a lot looked like many trees growing extremely close together, and a few had fallen down, creating holes in the canopy which let in lots more sunlight than I was expecting to see in a rainforest!

At one point I mentioned to Dan that I'd never been in a rainforest before. About five minutes later when he had registered and digested this information, he said, "But you lived in Guatemala!" I explained to him that the rainforest parts of Guatemala were found in the north, waaaaaaaay the heck away from anywhere, and in a malaria zone. Even had I had the money and inclination to travel around, I still would not have because I didn't have malaria medicine.

It was nice to be quiet for a while and let the world do the talking. Try it sometime! In the meantime, check out the photos on Picasa (album called "Rainforest").

Koalas and Kangaroos and Cassowaries... oh my

All right, for all those who have been badgering (kangarooing?) me for photos of native Australian animals, here you go! Kay (the girl from Nebraska that I had Thanksgiving pizza with) and I made it to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary on Sunday. It was great! They have the day organized into informational talks all over the little park about every half hour on the different animals. First we went to the koala talk. Afterwards the ranger brought out a koala so we could pet it - it was softer than I thought it would be. His name was Monacle because he was blind in one eye (from birth). Then we went to the kangaroo talk. The most notable thing about the kangaroo talk was that an emu wandered up and just sort of stuck his beak into the gazebo that we were sitting in. There are some pretty funny photos of that - emus are hilarious-looking to begin with, and this guy had his beak parted and he looked really excited and curious and almost like he was laughing! It was great. All of the talks also addressed the issue of the impact of humans and the danger that the environment is in, and what we can do to help preserve the habitats (like planting eucalyptus trees) and ways to avoid accidentally killing the animals in the wild (ie by being more alert when driving, especially in the bush and especially around dusk and dawn - like deer). Then, since Kay is really into birds (she was a fisheries and wildlife major in college, I think, and went on to work at a zoo for 6 years), we went to the Birds of Prey flight show. There are some photos of a couple of the birds in there. Finally, we went to the Lorikeet feeding, where the ranger put out a bunch of different bowls and you could hold one and have these beautiful birds flock to you - that was cool. In between the talks, we wandered around, petting what you could pet and taking photos and reading about the rest. You can go right into the kangaroo area and even feed them, so there are a million photos of them - they are so cute. These ones are really docile, I'm sure because they're used to it. I wouldn't go up to a completely wild one and try to pet it! There are also photos of other animals - tree frog, wombat, cassowary... All in all, a good day trip (about an hour from the center of the city, where we met up).

Here's the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/amy.horning/LonePineKoalaSanctuary
Enjoy!

Mealtime and Roadway Fun

On Saturday afternoon, Dan and I were drafted into going to a barbecue going-away party for Mia and Alex's friends Jen and John. They had come over a couple of times and are very nice - they are moving to Thailand for at least a year to teach English. I met Jen's parents at the barbecue which explained Jen's wanderlust - her parents are these totally hilarious hippies who have traveled everywhere, mostly by driving and/or camping along the way. They had just gotten back from a six-month trip all around Australia so I picked their brains for a long time about where to go and what to see and do (but not how to get there or where to stay, don't worry!). They also regaled us with tales of their adventures in Europe, which were fascinating. I admire them for their courage.

(Disclaimer: Mom, and anyone else who worries excessively, you should probably not read this paragraph...) After the barbecue, Jordan (another friend of the group) let me behind the wheel of his car. Now, let me explain something. This was a manual car (they were intensely amused by the expression "stick shift," by the way), which I have only ever driven, joltingly, around parking lots, most recently under the direction of my very patient friend Andrew. I know the mechanics of it but had never tried to actually get anywhere, and certainly not on the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road. But there weren't many cars around and it was a quick 5-minute drive back to the house. Also, Alex was sitting in the front passenger seat, doing the actual shifting of the gears for me - I was just operating the pedals and steering wheel. All in all, a totally funny and bizarre experience! (By the way - the pedals are NOT reversed. I agreed to drive before I thought of that and had a moment of panic, but it was fine. More complicated was remembering the turn signal was on the other side of the steering wheel...)

On Sunday I wandered into the city and killed some time at the Botanic Garden, which was lovely as usual. On Monday I arrived home after work to find all of the housemates home - including the elusive Ray of Batman fame. Matt and Jordan came over and we ended up all cooking and eating a big meal together, which was very nice. I also got to have a long chat with Ray, mostly about books, which was great. He lent me one which I am reading right now, called The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder, on top of everything else I'm reading (what can I say, I'm a book hog!). To round off the mealtime fun, I made latkes for Mia and Dan tonight to kick off Hanukah!

Like Water for Foreigners

In my first hostel in Sydney, there were a couple of very polite signs in the bathroom suggesting ways to save water. There was nothing in the second hostel or the Brisbane hostel I stayed in, about saving water or Australia being in the middle of a drought and, therefore, under some pretty severe water restrictions.

I guess each household takes the restrictions with their own grain of salt. Turns out, as I was given a gentle introductory lesson on doing dishes in a drought last night, my house is on the more conservative side in terms of water use. The recommendations include not rinsing your dishes after soaping them up; I find this incomprehensible, not to mention disgusting. I will do my best – already on my way to taking a four-minute shower – but it will take some getting used to.

But what amazes me is that there is virtually no instruction for tourists on water restrictions. The sign in the first hostel merely made it a suggestion to save water if you can, but gave no indication of why. Have tourists given them reason not to waste their time educating, or are the hostels just too lazy? It is a sad state of tourism when we go to another country expecting to conform it to our level of comfort instead of opening our eyes to another way of life and really getting to know the place we have entered and their struggles. I know that’s how tourism works, unfortunately, and probably especially for American tourists, but it’s still sad.

To George Street, shall we?

Boy, they sure do like their monarchs here in Australia. Today, walking on Elizabeth St, I passed George St, Albert St, Edward St, and Queen St. There is also a Margaret St somewhere nearby. In Sydney, two of the main drags (they run parallel to each other) are George and Elizabeth. This is in addition to them still celebrating the Queen's Birthday. Yow.

So, the bus plan was not such a good idea. I don't know that it would've been a good idea even if I hadn't been sick, had been able to sleep, and didn't feel like a zombie when I got off the bus this morning. The interesting thing about traveling overnight on a bus, in case you were wondering, is that once the sun rises there's not a *whole* lot you can do about it. The bus did have little curtains, but they were pretty ineffectual. I did take a little nap after I had some lunch, and feel a little less zombie-ish, but I am looking forward to bed tonight - early!

I did meet one of my roommates at the hostel who is a German girl also looking for work. I helped her with her resume a bit today; she's off at some other internet cafe typing it up. I got myself a paper so I can look at housing ads; I'll see if she wants the Help Wanted section.

"How are you going" means how are you doing. Note to self. :)

Monday morning in the big city

Yesterday, I took it easy, partly because I have a sore throat (must've picked it up on the plane - darn it!) and partly because I had to switch hostels mid-morning. I actually really like my new hostel, more on that later. When I did finally venture out, I headed for Darling Harbour, which is basically a big promenade. It was a bit much for me, so then I took a roundabout way of getting to Wentworth Park, which was not terribly exciting, but I did see some of a pickup game of "footy" (soccer). I got a little turned around heading back to pass by Paddy's Market and managed to get there just before their "official" closing time, although people were still buying like crazy when I left at quarter after.

Paddy's Market is the most intense market I've ever been to. Think of a big flea market, but with all Chinese people, all yelling "one dollah one dollah" at you, people everywhere shoving. I'm sure someone was making announcements, probably about the market closing, but you couldn't really hear anything over the din. I had read about Paddy's Market in my guidebook and it said you could buy fresh fruit and veggies there for really cheap. Part of the culture of my new hostel is that there is a huge kitchen and most people buy food at the supermarket to cook there. I managed to get enough veggies for two dinners, plus two apples and a banana, all for about $3 (maybe $3.50 US).

Walking around the city is a little exciting sometimes because it seems like you never know where the cars are going to come from! Seriously, though, it's a good thing they've painted instructions "Look Right" on the crosswalks so you remember to look the correct way for turning traffic. The crosswalk signals are interesting too, they make a funny noise when they change to "walk" (it's a little green man though). I wish you could hear it, it's really odd sounding.

About the new hostel. There is one medium-sized common room, right next to the kitchen which is very open, so it feels all connected. There are tables for eating and lots of sofas, mostly pointed towards the big screen tv. Last night, tons of people gathered down there to make dinner and watch tv. The channel it was on showed a bunch of episodes of Friends and Malcolm in the Middle, but there was also an ad for Maury, on later (oy). Amazing. It just has a much friendlier, more intimate feel than the other, enormous hostel (although this one's name is The Big Hostel, ironically). My dormmates are nicer and generally seem more considerate - I think because they tend to be longer term than the other hostel. All in all, a good switch.

Right now it's Monday morning and I am at the IEP office waiting for orientation to begin. Later I will get my cell phone and call the woman in Brisbane about working there, and go to the bank to open my account. It's supposed to get to about 25C today (about 80F) and it's been mostly gorgeous clear blue skies so far :)

Sydney adventures!

Last night I didn't have energy for much more than finding an ATM and some food and taking a quick shower before bed. But I did venture out into the big city on my own! I thanked Becca in my head last night, and again today, for teaching me as we traveled together in Poland a few years ago, to bite the bullet and get the heck out of the hostel. What I did manage to get for dinner was promising-sounding falafel, but it was about as good as you might expect Australian falafel to be, even though the guys who sold it to me looked and sounded Middle Eastern. Oh well.

Today I walked my poor little feet off! I meant to go to the Royal Botanic Gardens but got distracted by the Harbour (Harbour Bridge; Opera House) and climbing the Harbour Bridge. Well, I didn't do the whole bridge, as you will see as soon as I can post the photos - the real climb is insane, so I might do it later :) But you can go up to a lookout tower thing, which was cool. Then I grabbed some lunch and finally made it to the Royal Botanic Gardens, which were amazing. I spent a while just sitting, listening to music, soaking in the scenery, people watching, and getting sunburned (oops).

I took my time coming back, partly because my feet hurt and partly because I kept getting distracted by things. On the way back, I passed the public library (I refrained from taking a photo... although the building is beautiful), St. Mary's Church, the Great Synagogue, and went through most of Hyde Park, which is also amazing. I also managed to secure housing for tomorrow and Monday nights, which was making me a tad nervous (the program puts you up for two nights and then you're on your own, and my hostel was booked for Sunday night) but it's all set now.

Snorkeling

Many moons ago, my grandparents gave my cousin Kate a book called Charlie Brown's Super Book of Questions and Answers. It got passed down to me and my sister, and I saw it recently on the bookshelf of Kate's daughter. In it, among descriptions of many plants and animals, and the Peanuts characters and their little speech bubbles, is a whole little section on sea cucumbers. So when Jay picked up what looked like a huge slug (about a foot long, several inches in diameter, and black - the bottom photo on that page looks most like the one we saw) while we were snorkeling, that page flashed in my mind, although I don't remember the picture in the book (if there was one). Jay also pointed out many other things, mostly fish (unicorn fish, trigger fish, and a sea turtle - almost). A diver in the Navy and an avid surfer and snorkeler, he is a wealth of knowledge. Despite banging my knee on some coral (which really hurts, in case you were wondering), it was a delightful afternoon at the beach, and a nice way to wrap up the week. Thanks Jay!

Paradise Found!

There it is! It got nice out the last two days. Unfortunately, my cousin Laura wasn't feeling well, but her husband Jay kindly took me around Tuesday afternoon. We walked on Waikiki Beach and then hiked up Diamondhead. Then today, since the kids had a half-day of school, we went to the beach! It was pretty cloudy so we didn't take a lot of photos, but Jay did take me snorkeling, which was awesome. Being a diver in the Navy as well as an avid surfer and snorkeler, he knows a lot and it was really fun. Laura and I went to the swap meet, which is a big outdoor market that encircles the University of Hawaii football stadium with gobs of cheapo touristy junk, but I did manage to get a new bathing suit and a sarong. All of these activities are featured in the album "Hawaii Part II" under the Flickr link to the right.

Jay and Laura are going to lend me their big packpack so I should go make sure all my junk fits in there. Then it's off to bed and up early for 10 and a half hours on the plane!

Oh by the way, I am aware that the world clock link on the right ("Sydney Time!") is not working. I'll fix it as soon as I have time. In the meantime, you can go to www.timeanddate.com/worldclock and look it up.

Paradise Lost

Greetings from Hawaii! This is a photo of the sunset from the plane, shortly after takeoff from LA. The sun was setting for about an hour as we followed it west.


My friend Paul referred to Hawaii as Paradise the other day, but the weather here has been uncharacteristically grey and rainy, which has proved finding activities difficult. On Saturday, my cousin Laura, her husband Jay, and their boys Keegan, Brendan and Collin took me on a driving tour of Oahu, which included the Heiau, Laniakea (Turtle) beach, and Byodo-In Temple. On Sunday, we were rained in most of the day but did manage to drive to Ford Island and see the base and Pearl Harbor from the west. Today (Tuesday), Laura and I took the kids to school and then went to the USS Arizona Memorial. We had lunch with Jay (who got out of work early due to sewage overflow in Pearl Harbor from the rain) and Collin at the Rainbow Bay Marina, and then hung out at their house.


The weather is supposed to get better the rest of this week so maybe I'll have photos from the beach and other outdoor activities later! In the meantime, check the Flickr link on the right for the album "Hawaii Part I"!